Ministry of Justice

Reoffenders

The Earl of Dundee: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what targets they have for reducing rates of reoffending; and what plans they have for (1) a partial replacement of custodial sentences with community sentences, and (2) policies to assist families, communities and schools to dissuade young people from crime.

Lord Faulks: We have taken decisive action to reduce reoffending. For the first time in recent history those sentenced to less than 12 months in custody receive probation support on release. We have also opened up the delivery of rehabilitation services to a diverse range of providers, including private and voluntary sector organisations. While there is no specific national target for reducing reoffending, Community Rehabilitation Companies are incentivised to help offenders turn their backs on crime and will only be paid in full if they are successful in reducing reoffending. The government is currently considering what options there may be for strengthening and improving the current community sentence framework, and in particular the role that technology may play in this. No decisions have yet been made. We are committed to preventing youth offending and supporting families. We contribute to the Youth Engagement Fund which is using social impact bonds to support up to 8,000 disadvantaged young people to improve their educational qualifications and secure employment which will reduce their risk of becoming involved in offending. We have also introduced family engagement workers in young adult and women’s prisons to help strengthen family relationships.

Reoffenders

The Earl of Dundee: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of comparative statistics in other European states for (1) custodial sentences per head of population, and (2) reoffending rates for individuals who have served either (a) custodial or (b) community sentences.

Lord Faulks: We are keen to learn from innovative justice practice in other countries and are currently reviewing international evidence of what works. We contribute towards the Council of Europe Annual Penal Statistics and the International Centre for Prison Studies, which provide a comparison of custodial sentences per head of population. In the case of reoffending, few comparisons have been published because of the limited number of countries which regularly collect and analyse such data and the different methods which are used to calculate these rates. The 2010 “Compendium of reoffending statistics and analysis” compares reoffending rates for England and Wales, Scotland and the Netherlands. It concluded that most of the difference in reoffending rates between countries identified was due to the different measurement techniques, rather than any real difference in the level of reoffending between particular groups of offenders.